Differences Between Insurance Advisors and Insurance Agents

When you start shopping for insurance policies, you are going to come across people who can help you find what you’re looking for and they’re probably going to have titles like insurance advisors and insurance agents. There are reasons why these professionals are titled differently and the differences will explain why you want to work with insurance advisors in New Zealand rather than insurance agents.

Insurance Advisors

Insurance advisors are professionals who do not represent anyone specific insurance company and work on behalf of the insurance buyer. Their job description is to provide insurance-related advice to their clients to help them protect themselves from various risks. They do not sell insurance plans, but instead work with their clients to identify the policies that are available from any insurance companies that meet the clients’ needs.

While insurance advisors sometimes charge a broker’s fee to their clients, they mostly get paid from insurance company commissions that they earn by placing policies with insurance companies. Since they get paid no matter which policy their client ends up applying for, they do not try to push any one company or policy onto their clients. They use their knowledge of the insurance world to help clients make the best insurance-related financial decisions based on their goals, needs, and wants.

Insurance Agents

Insurance agents, on the other hand, are professionals who represent a specific insurance company and work to sell only the policies offered by that insurance company to potential customers. They earn their paycheck by selling these policies and earning commission from the single insurance company they represent. They still work with their clients to identify policies that best meet their needs, but their offerings are restricted to a single insurance company because they can’t sell a competitor’s policy.

In most cases, you’ll probably work with an insurance agent if you call an insurance company directly looking for policies. Moreover, insurance agents often make cold calls to people who may benefit from their company’s services in an attempt to sign them up for certain policies.

Unfortunately, because they work for only one insurance company and their pay depends on how many policies they sell, they don’t always have the best interests of their clients in mind. There could be better and cheaper policies available from other insurers that are more in tune with what you’ll need, but you won’t learn about them from an agent.

Which One is Better?

If you’re looking to get a policy from a specific insurance company and you don’t want to know what other companies are offering, an insurance agent is a perfectly acceptable partner. But, if you aren’t sure what policies are available or you want to comparison shop before you buy a policy, an insurance advisor is a better option because they aren’t invested in selling products from one company. You can find the right policy for your needs at the right price for your budget.

Conclusion

It’s always a good idea to understand certain terms when you’re researching a specific industry, and the insurance field is no exception. Understanding the differences between insurance advisors and insurance brokers will save you both time and money.